Call 2 Fall Sunday
June 30, 2013
Fr. Philip Eberhart
Call 2 Fall Sunday (AUDIO)
Over the past years this has been a
Sunday dedicated to the actualization of the verse in Second Chronicles 7:14
regarding a nation’s need for humble prayer and repentance, seeking the face of
God and turning from wickedness.
That has not changed, in fact, I believe the times cry out for it in
ever greater proportions these days.
I want to look for a moment at that
scripture in its context through, in a state that currently has something like
a dozen active fires and is in one of the most significant droughts of its
history, the verse preceeding the 14th verse is of great interest.
Verse 13 says “If I shut up
heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land,
or if I send pestilence among my people;
If my people, which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves and
pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Given the context of
these verses and the context of our national life right now, both in Colorado
with our dryness and fires, and in the nation, with the dryness of Spirit that
is rampant and the recent decisions of our government and courts, we are more
in need of the intervention and forgiveness of God than ever!
The Call 2 Fall weekend is a time
for us to enact 2 Chron 7:14 – to humble ourselves by kneeling before God in
our worship services and to give significant time to prayer for our nation and
its spiritual health.
But also this morning, in the
regular flow of our lectionary we have the answer to a question I have been
asking in this regard. What can we
DO Lord? What must we do, in the
face of the decisions and directions that our country is hell-bent on
going? For me the answer came in a
conversation with our bishop, yesterday and in the scripture for this morning
from Galations 5.
So let’s consider the call first
and then our response to our need and the need of our culture.
The Call of God to fall on our
knees and to engage in acts and in a lifestyle of repentance is one that is
on-going through the history of God’s people. The context of 2 Chron is the finishing of the 1st
Temple, Solomon’s Temple – and here, from the very outset, God set forth the
problem and the solution.
The problem is the fact that my
people are wayward. In those times
the lack of rain, or the presence of locusts and pestilence or disease, was a
sign of the dis-favor of God for the actions of His people. The supernatural had ramifications in
the natural. It’s given me pause
to wonder today as we lose thousands of acres of land and hundreds of homes to
fire if more is going on than meets the eye. I just wonder?
But God has given us a key with
which to open the door again to his Favor and blessing on our land! Let’s look for a moment at the
key: turn with me to 2 Chronicles
7
IF MY PEOPLE
MY PEOPLE: Called by My Name
God
is not calling the whole nation at once, obedient and disobedient
together. He is talking to His
Children here. To those who have
accepted the Name of God and who have been Marked as Christ’s Own Forever! That’s you and me, if we have named the
name of Christ as savior and profess to follow Him in our lives. We are His People. He is Our God. The onus is on us, friends – not on the
supposed “wicked” people. In fact
it is not our part to even identify who that might be! Only God knows the shape and the intent
of our hearts.
This week I was reflecting on the
verses in Romans 1 – the chapter that contains the most frightening words of
Holy Writ: “God Gave Them
Over.” God let them be; gave them
their way; let them go. Several
times in the 1st Chapter of Romans Paul uses this phrase.
And there is a kind of progression
into reprobation.
A. Uncleanness = the luxury of profligate living! A-Katharsia (Catharsis is the greek root for
an emotional cleansing – especially around the shedding of tears in our modern
parlance) Thus Uncleanness is
having No More Tears (about our behavior and its effects on the world around
us)
B. Shameful Passions = the words used here are even more clear
– what God sees is vile. (atimia = as vile as a dead body). Our passions (pathos) are broken, twisted
and marred – no reflection of that which is intended by God for our mutual joy. And finally, God gives us over to ...
C. Reprobation
– but again a very interesting word picture here – adokimos. In the ancient world there was no
uniform coinage, no paper money – it was all by weight of silver or gold. And a coin was intended to have a full
weight of a particular metal. Some
whittled the coins down to their very least and then put them into circulation.
Others chose the honorable route of full weight, genuine currency in their
dealings – these men were called dokimos. In the NT it occurs 7
times and is translated as “approved”
- Study to show yourself approved unto God! So a-dokimos
is one not approved by God – one who
is fake – light-weight! One whose life just doesn’t measure up!
We were discussing this progression
in one of our meetings after the Supreme Court decisions this week and I was
waxing eloquent about all this, and then I came to the 2nd chapter
of Romans. We don’t like to go
there much:
Rom 2:1 NLT - You
may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no
excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning
yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
Paul is real
clear that the accusing ones and the accused ones are really in the same boat.
We are all “stubborn, refusing to turn from our sin, storing up terrible
punishment.” We have no way, in and of ourselves, to distinguish
ourselves from the culture, because we have the same motives and sinful
passions, though our actions may differ in some ways.
So let us turn to the reading from Galations today, in the normal course of our lectionary
texts! Once again, God’s word,
from the lectionary – readings that were set out to be read in the normal
course of the life of the Church, hundreds of years ago – speaks to the very
moment we are living in this day:
For
freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery.
For
you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one
another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour
one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live
by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the
flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed
to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing
what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the
law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels,
dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I
am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God.
By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against
such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by
the Spirit.
Let me just pick a few points out
of this Word today:
The goal of Christ in our life is
FREEDOM – Freedom from Sin; Freedom from the Law.
In Romans 8 Paul says that the Law
of the Spirit of Life in Christ has SET US FREE from the Law of Sin and Death!
So we are called to that kind of freedom!
We in the U.S. have a particular affinity for Freedom, but we do not
often use it wisely. Paul warns
us, “Do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for [evil].” Instead we are urged to LIVE
BY THE SPIRIT, not gratifying the desires of the flesh. Those
desires are listed for us, as if we need a reminder: Fornication, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels,
dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and such like. Jesus had such lists – that which comes
from inside a man, defiling him and his life. The point here is that we are all partakers in these things!
"By contrast," Paul says, look
here! The fruit of the Spirit is
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, and self-Control. There is no law against these things!
In our country where we now have no
law against almost anything, it still is our part in the worship of the King
and the spread of His Kingdom, to live “according to the Spirit” not gratifying
or making provision for the lusts of the flesh.
As I said last week, as we rail
again the darkness let us remind ourselves that the darkness is just doing what
it does – being dark! The problem
with being in darkness is not with the dark – it is with the light! And what we have just read is the
definition of ‘LIGHT” in our world – every day, moment-by-moment – those who
live out the Fruit of the Spirit will be the Light of the World! Make no mistake that our response to
this week's actions in our country will be tested. As the coins we spoke of before, our metal will be tried –
weighed, if you want. And what will
the world around us find?
My prayer is that they find us
REAL. That they find us having the
FULL WEIGHT of the Glory of God and of God’s approval on our lives. But we must remember that that glory is
not gained by standing in the accuser’s place, pointing out the sins of
others. It is gained as we kneel
and humble ourselves before the hand of an almighty and sovereign God, begging
his forgiveness for our own sins, our own wickedness, our own falsehood, and
making a way for him to come again and heal our land.
So let us kneel and bow before him,
if you are able, with me this morning.
We will be in this position for a few minutes, so if you are not able
please be seated and bow your heads in prayer.
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